Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 | Page 9

It was not until the period of the menopause that the
long repressed desires broke out, and at last found a symbolical outlet
that was no longer normal, but was felt to supply a complete
gratification. She sought the close physical contact of the young
children in her care. She would lie on her bed naked, with two or three
naked children, make them suck her breasts and press them to every
part of her body. Her conduct was discovered by means of other
children who peeped through the keyhole, and she was placed under
Penta for treatment. In this case the loss of moral and mental inhibition,
due probably to troubles of the climacteric, led to indulgence, under
abnormal conditions, in those primitive contacts which are normally the
beginning of love, and these, supported by the ideal image of the early
lover, constituted a complete and adequate symbol of natural love in a
morbidly perverted individual. (P. Penta, Archivio delle Psicopatie
Sessuali, January, 1896.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The term "erotic symbolism" has already been employed by
Eulenburg (Sexuale Neuropathie, 1895, p. 101). It must be borne in
mind that this term, implying the specific emotion, is much narrower
than the term "sexual symbolism," which may be used to designate a
great variety of ritual and social practices which have played a part in
the evolution of civilization.
[2] Sexual Selection in Man, iv, "Vision."
[3] K. Groos, Der Æsthetische Genuss, p. 122. The psychology of the
associations of contiguity and resemblance through which erotic
symbolism operates its transference is briefly discussed by Ribot in the
Psychology of the Emotions, Part 1, Chapter XII; the early chapters of
the same author's Logique des Sentiments may also be said to deal with
the emotional basis on which erotic symbolism arises.
[4] A number of synonyms for the female pudenda are brought together
by Schurig--cunnus, hortus, concha, navis, fovea, larva, canis, annulus,
focus, cymba, antrum, delta, myrtus, etc.--and he discusses many of

them. (Muliebria, Section I, cap. I.)
[5] Kleinpaul, Sprache Ohne Worte, pp. 24-29; cf. K. Pearson, on the
general and special words for sex, Chances of Death, vol. ii, pp.
112-245; a selection of the literature of the rose will be found in a
volume of translations entitled Ros Rosarum.
[6] G.S. Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 470.
[7] Goron, Les Parias de l'Amour, p. 45.
[8] A.R. Reynolds, Medical Standard, vol. x, cited by Kiernan,
"Responsibility in Sexual Perversion," American Journal of Neurology
and Psychiatry, 1882.
[9] R. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy,


Part III, Section II, Mem. II,
Subs. II, and Mem. III, Subs. I.
[10] Numerous examples are given by Moll, Konträre
Sexualempfindung, third edition, pp. 265-268.
[11] Chevalier (De l'Inversion, 1885; id., L'Inversion Sexuelle, 1892, p.
52), followed by E. Laurent (L'Amour Morbide, 1891, Chapter X),
separates this group from other fetichistic perversions, under the head
of "azoöphilie." I see no adequate ground for this step. The various
forms of fetichism are too intimately associated to permit of any group
of them being violently separated from the others.
[12] This has already been considered as a perversion founded on
vision, in discussing Sexual Selection in Man. IV.

II.
Foot-fetichism and Shoe-fetichism--Wide Prevalence and Normal
Basis--Restif de la Bretonne--The Foot a Normal Focus of Sexual
Attraction Among Some Peoples--The Chinese, Greeks, Romans,
Spaniards, etc.--The Congenital Predisposition in Erotic
Symbolism--The Influence of Early Association and Emotional
Shock--Shoe-fetichism in Relation to Masochism--The Two
Phenomena Independent Though Allied--The Desire to be Trodden
On--The Fascination of Physical Constraint--The Symbolism of
Self-inflicted Pain--The Dynamic Element in Erotic Symbolism--The
Symbolism of Garments.
Of all forms of erotic symbolism the most frequent is that which
idealizes the foot and the shoe. The phenomena we here encounter are
sometimes so complex and raise so many interesting questions that it is
necessary to discuss them somewhat fully.
It would seem that even for the normal lover the foot is one of the most
attractive parts of the body. Stanley Hall found that among the parts
specified as most admired in the other sex by young men and women
who answered a questionnaire the feet came fourth (after the eyes, hair,
stature and size).[13] Casanova, an acute student and lover of women
who was in no degree a foot fetichist, remarks that all men who share
his interest in women are attracted by their feet; they offer the same
interest, he considers, as the question of the particular edition offers to
the book-lover.[14]
In a report of the results of a questionnaire concerning children's sense
of self, to which over 500 replies were received, Stanley Hall thus
summarizes the main facts ascertained with reference to the feet: "A
special period of noticing the feet comes somewhat later than that in
which the hands are discovered to consciousness. Our records